Intermittent tensile deformation of silver microcastings: Influence of the strain rate

We compare the uniaxial tensile behavior of mu m-scale cast silver tensile specimens at strain rates of 10(-3 )s(-1) and 2 s(-1) to find no major impact of the strain rate on either of the flow stress, work hardening, or strain to fracture. Plastic deformation progresses at both strain rates mainly through local slip bursts of variable amplitude. Within uncertainty in higher strain rate data, the complementary cumulative distribution function of the slip burst amplitudes remains unchanged. A statistical analysis of the time and strain increments between consecutive events suggests that slip bursts are predominantly triggered, not by time elapsed between events, but rather by the progression of deformation expressed in terms of stress and strain.